ASEAN Navies: Cooperation or Confrontation

Southeast Asian Navies are growing and becoming more capable, and maritime security issues are assuming an ever more dominant profile in the region…with several maritime boundaries still to be delimited and growing demand for offshore resources, there is a potential for clashes at sea…until recently the focus of confidence building measures has been, by default, on the operations of essentially surface navies. The introduction and expansion of submarine forces in South-East Asian Navies adds another dimension to the challenge…there is therefore a need for a more serious approach to maritime confidence and security building among the navies of South-East Asian waters. (James Goldrick and Jack McCaffrie, 2012:219-220